Carnetrada
Carnetrada refers to the kingdom, Carnetrada and the name of their city, Carnetrada. While not as present as the other kingdoms established after the Awakening, Carnetrada was a strong one nonetheless. Long time enemies of the Kingdom of Harracktor, Carnetrada was defeated by the Harracktorian kingdom twice and abandoned. History A mysterious kingdom infamous for its history of involvement in dark arts long banished from other civilized nations. It is ruled by the Wizard King Malcolm the Blackhearted, rumored to the the most powerful of the council of warlocks and necromancers that hold the populace in their steely grasp. The 'people' are more or less slaves within the kingdom: poverty and famine is widespread and most rarely live past their 20s because of the harsh conditions forced upon them. How they are kept in such miserable lives is a widely debated topic amongst foreigners and one of many secrets Carnetrada holds close to its wicked heart. It began, as most human nations, as a wandering tribe. Magic, even in its earliest days, was seen as a curse by most of humanity. These early wizards were ostracized from their tribes and they gathered together to form a powerful cult. It is said that its leader, the first of the Blackheart line and a powerful necromancer besides, was able to control the very whims and thoughts of all those surrounding him. Peasants and citizens from all peoples and all walks of life were soon found to be wandering into the great forests in which the roots of Carnetrada would be founded. In the ancient times, the people who would found Carnetrada were in fact a part of the Harracktorian tribes. One man in particular, the first of the Blackhearts, felt the influence of a great and terrible power calling to him from the depths of a dream. Posessed by an obsessive desire to reach back out to this entity, he slowly unlocked powers never before seen in humankind: sorcery. Convinced that they were a blessing from this elusive god, he began a cult whose sole goal was to discover and release the god that haunted Blackheart's dreams. It was not until a string of disappearances of young maidens that Blackheart earned the attention and the ire of the warrior king of Harracktor. It was discovered that they had turned to human sacrifice as a means to attend their demonic god and they were immediately ousted from society. Many of the supposed warlocks were slain on the spot in what would be one of many bloody times in the history of Harracktor, but Blackheart and his closest and most powerful elites were able to escape into the bleak wilderness. For centuries, Blackheart and his ilk were never heard from again. When the war against the Ancient races arose, however, a new Wizard King and his newly founded nation returned from the shadows with a force unlike any other. Peasants whisked away from the other nations shambled alongside the corpses of elf and orc and dwarf alike, a nightmarish army thrown against the Ancients like toys. Aghast but desperate for numbers, the new nation of Carnetrada and Harracktor allied if only briefly to decimate the armies of the Ancient ones that threatened to overwhelm them. When all was said and done, the Wizard King and his council vanished from the battlefield, leaving only a message: Peace for silence. From then on, the two neighboring nations enjoyed a relative, if not tense, age of peace between them. It was easy enough to maintain: Carnetrada simply did not involve itself in any affairs outside its own borders, remaining isolated within the dark forests it had claimed in ages before. Though it never invited emissaries or dignitaries, it never seemed to turn away the lines of peasants and impoverished that seemed to be inexplicably drawn to the black forests... This peace ended abruptly when the Wizard King made a drastic move. Growing impatient and desperate to fullfil the legacy his ancestors began, the King of Carntrada and his agents kidnapped the Princess of Harracktor. A terrible war broke out immediately between the two kingdoms: one armed with the black arts and the bloodthirsty desires of its Demon God, and the other with the disciplined but fierce rage of the greatest of warrior kings. Officially, the war never ended, but the battles grew fewer and fewer over the centuries. What ever became of the Princess is a secret kept only by the highest of the high in Carnetradan society, a fact which keeps a bitter resentment between the two nations. King Malcolm Blackheart would trick the Harracktorian Kingdom and would manage to get a hold of King Bukoski VII's body. In a ritual involving ancient magics, Malcolm was able to resurrect the demon king, Artheemius Lyeench, using the King's body to house the demon. To Malcolm's shock, the demon king saw no use for the king and deemed him King Nothing. Artheemius would be defeated by the Harracktorian forces. Malcolm and his messenger, Cuideag would be sent to the island prison, Vankila Saari. A king was put in place by the Harracktorian kingdom, King Landus, to preside over Carnetrada now that their king was gone but the Carnetradians loathed Landus and would have him overthrown. Cuideag would manage to escape the prison with the help of a guard and with the senior wizards of Carnetrada would manage to bring back Artheemius. When Artheemius attempted to bring about the end of the world, Cuideag protested and was slain. Artheemius would kill most of the senior mages of Carnetrada for fun and when Artheemius was defeated by Grimval Laft and the Sacred Sword, much of Carnetrada was physically destroyed and its society collapsed. Some beleive the Children of Artheemius are the remnants of Carentrada, emrging after many years of silence. Society The social landscape of Carnetrada is bleak and surprisingly unforgiving. The people are divided into castes which are, once more, divided into many more castes within themselves. These groups are largely segregated in accordance to various laws and cultural taboos. At the very bottom are the people who are not officially citizens of Carnetrada but are, rather, the refuse from other nations. They are typically mute and go about their days as if in a daze from which they are unable to awaken. These are the ones who have given up everything and it is to Carnetrada they are drawn from all aross the continent to serve as the most basic work force in the kingdom. They have no homes, no money, no rights, and no worth as far as anyone else is concerned. Most people have learned to unsee them as they do not otherwise interact with the population: they are, in fact, functioning on little more than the strange magics constantly woven by one of the wizard castes. Next up are the people who are typically referred to as the low-born. They are poorest of Carnetrada and make up the largest chunk of the kingdom's population. They are afforded basic courtesies from the King: hard labor camps have been built throughout the nation to house and work them from adolescence into late adulthood. It is difficult for low-born citizens to advance into a higher caste because of the very stigma of being low-born but those who have earned sufficient favor occasionally do ascend. They are barred from earning formal education and are forbidden entry into the capital. Breeding is strictly regulated and it is not uncommon to see camps raided in search of unauthorized children, regardless of age (or if they've even been born yet). Low-borns are not permitted to leave the kingdom and those that do are usually hunted down before they get too far. The middle class makes up the next largest group. They enjoy greater freedoms than the low-born, such as the luxury of education and the ability to own property and businesses. Many also enjoy jobs in the governing body, though rarely are they ever put in positions of power. Most have come to accept the kingdom's harsher treatment of the lower castes though now and again, cells of people protesting for better civil rights do appear. They rarely last: punishment for dissenters is severe, ending either in death or exile. These people are allowed to leave the kingdom though few do without good reason. The top tier consists of the mages who rule over Carnetrada. They, too, have ranks based mostly on skill, cunning, and the utter lack of regard for the lesser peoples. The Wizard King is not explicity a position passed through heredity but is rather earned through various games of politics and intrigue. The Blackhearts have been bred to be the most cunning, most vile, and most treacherous in all of Carnetrada and so it is they who have always held the throne. Serving beneath him are the Arbiters, wizards of immense power who are charged with controlling the population. It is they who cull the unworthy and seek out signs of new mage-born wherever they may be. The Adjudicators ensure that laws are upheld as strictly as possible and often take administrative roles in the labor camps. The Concierges, the most numerous of the wizard castes, maintain the border and its security. Once, they held a spell of seclusion that hid Carnetrada from the eyes of foreigners. Now, they concern themselves mostly with the strange hymns that lull the downtrodden from other kingdoms into Carnetrada itself, as well as with taking care of unauthorized entries or exits. Breeding between mages is strictly prohibited with very few exceptions, and mages are forbidden from leaving the kingdom without direct authorization from the Wizard King. Even then, there is a great cost, so few undertake travelling beyond the borders of the kingdom. Category:Kingdoms